A different path
by Kalenz
Summary: Yeah, just starting out. I don't know what urged me to write about this or even start a fanfiction at all. Thanks in advance for reading my story if you choose to do so.
1. Chapter 1

Drowned in the fear of onset schizophrenia, Mike grasps his head. Voices, thoughts all permeating deep into his mind from those around him. The sheer magnitude makes him lose his footing and he slams into a light post redirecting him from entering the street. Sweat piles up from the heat of his mind, over-exerted by the white noise of hundreds of conversations. Searching for a sensible voice, yet fleeing from its prospect. Vague hints of his conscious seep through as he manages to ask himself, "Am I crazy?" amidst all the other people talking. The dim corner of the block takes his eye; he rushes towards the secluded alleyway. From the darkness, the image of a lit sign shines against the opposite wall. Light fragments out into an unbroken form with no direction. Squinting his eyes to follow their movement, setting the cracks of the mental breakdown. As all else fails to calm his senses, desperation begins to swell. An urgent want to disappear to a happier place. A need. It has to happen. All his struggle builds up as he pictures the perfect place away from the big city; a simple place in isolation. A quiet place. Void of people, a place that simply has no one around. Just the vision of a picture he was able gaze upon from the inside last place he could remember.

It all is a flicker at first, and the energy flows faster and faster with the picture turning from a faded concept to a clear image. Something snaps, he can feel the fresh breeze of salt filled air. Almost as fast as the change of location the very same happens which causes a release of breath as he lays down in the wet sand. Each wave washes new life into his spirit. Every sound emptying his mind. The cold brings yet more water into his shoes, and almost pulls the stress with it while the water recedes. Time slows metaphorically during the reconstruction of his sanity.

Gears in his mind begin to turn. Gradually his location, the voices, it all comes together. It was real, and he remembers it. Still unsure of what exactly happened, an unknown guy and girl followed the path emitted in his wake. The very sight of their appearance, causes Mike to crawl backwards in a meager attempt to flee. From, them? Perhaps. From the breakdown he believes may actually be happening? Maybe. His eyes looking at nothing while focusing straight ahead on a concept that can't be real, as his body continues backwards. Fear stalls his movement, his eyes shifting back and forth between each person in front of him. Another wave crashes into the beach and pulls mike back into the moment, pushing him into heavy breathing. Gasping for air, one of the two goes to retrieve a small paper bag, and hands it over to Mike. Mike grabs the bag automatically, blows into it and follows up instead by poping it with his hands.

A few moments pass by, the concerned looks on the to onlookers at Mike.

Weaker than the sound of the ocean, Mike utters a word under his breath, "Hi," breaking the silent stares.

"Hey, I know you must be freaking out right now but it's ok."

"Yeah, each of us were here at one point, it'll get easier."

"Ok… so what's going on?"

"You've awoken a sleeping gene in your body, and has mutated you into a new species."

"I'm sorry," Mike crazily laughs and chokes out, "what?"

"Cara, hold up; there's no need to jump right into it."

The two strangers look at eachother for what feels like hours. Talking to each other privately, arguing how to best discuss the situation to a new potential recruit. *You know what? I got this. Let me deal with him.*

"I'm Mike." Mike says while standing up. Patting himself down, as a means to remove the encrusted sand off of his clothes with a somewhat aloof look on his face.

"Hi, I'm Cara, and this is Stephen. We are here to help you." Cara says with some concern. "I know there are a ton of questions you have about what's exactly going on, but there isn't much time. Soon a group called Ultra will be after you, they probably aren't far behind us. We have to hurry." Cara says while looking around the area, scanning for anything out of place.

Puzzled, Mike thinks through a few scenarios. One; Either, they must be attempting to recruit him into their ranks in a war and maybe don't have any idea about the capabilities of this 'Ultra'. Two; He's still crazy. Three; They genuinely care about his wellbeing. Four; Or, these people have no idea what they're talking about as they're in the middle of nowhere at the moment. Allowed to think uninterrupted, Mike responds pausing between the first few words, "So then. War. Great. I assume you have a safe place to hide then?"

"Yeah, here hold on to my hand, I'll teleport the both of us there now." Stephen says outreaching his right hand. Mike grabs onto it with trust and all that's left behind for a few seconds is a tuft of smoke in the shape of their bodies.

Immediately the dampness of an underground cave surrounds Mike. Cara and Stephen have been used to being in the abandoned subway system, and openly greet the others of their group. They introduce Mike to everyone with kindness, each person coming up in a unique way.

Russell says, "Welcome to becoming a human-superior."

A few of the others just shrug, and John comes forward and practically states how dangerous life is for them in an attempt to control the situation.

"Ok, I think I understand what's going on, but first I'd like to learn a little bit more about the powers I now possess, it'll help me wrap my mind around our actual strengths as a whole and give me some time to reflect about what has transpired and think about what to do next."

Stephen gets a call from Jedikiah, interrupting the conversation. "We need you to come in, a new development has been made. The tomorrow people are getting better at recruiting others, I heard our scouts felt a flow of energy move. They report someone we were pursuing was detected, two sources followed after and now we've lost track of them. It's possible there's another new group out there.

"On my way, sir." Stephen says before gazing around in an awkward state as a means to show his farewells before teleporting to the base of Ultra. Cara tells him to go. Upon Stephens departure, the crowd quickly dissipates.

With most everyone dispersed now, no longer interested in the new party member; everyone was more intrigued by their own prospects.

Cara openly says, "Stephen is the chosen one, from what I've heard and seen, he has powers none of us have had. His father is also the founder of our group and there is talk about a safe haven for our kind out there. He might be there now."

"Look kid, this is a fight that we have to win. And it's my duty to protect everyone here, so it's time for you to begin your training."

"Training?" Mike asks intrigued at the learning experience.

"Yeah, you'll learn all the different ways to use the powers we have and how to effectively use them if you need to." John says, "I've got things to attend to, welcome to our base."

A crooked smile becomes visible upon Mike's face, a fervorous look glints outwards from an eye. John telepathically tells Cara before leaving, "This may be a bad idea."

"You know what? I'll teach you the basics. I'm kind of stuck down here most of the time anyway." Cara offers.

"What do you mean stuck down here?" Mike genuinely asks

"It's a long story, but I had staged having my powers removed in order to get out of ultras main base. So I can't go to the surface as freely as before."

"I thought you were never free to teleport or use powers up on the surface as you'd stick out like a sore thumb."

"Yes, but if I get found, Stephen will be in trouble as he is the one who was supposed to have injected me with the "antidote".

Mike just stands around absorbing all of the information he had just learned. Standing still and contemplating on how best to proceed, Cara interrupts his train of thought by saying, "Follow me." as she heads towards the training ground in another section of the base.

Mike recedes back into thought during the walk down to the training grounds. *These people are in a lot of trouble. They're fighting a pointless war by themselves, each one acting as a leader. We can just… ignore Ultra. Their plan of recruiting more people is obviously the best idea, but they've become completely engrossed in this drama. They're far, far too busy to realise that they've lost the ability to focus on any priority and cannot function properly because of being emotionally compromised. With some basic information of Ultra and their bases, we can easily set up a better hideout in a greater location. Randomly choosing where to appear to gather food, steal technology that can be used… We can easily have a self sustained culture eventually with these powers. Oh man… this is exciting [he pictures lifting a 500 ton weight and harnessing the frictional energy caused by gravity pulling it downwards] *unlimited power! Oh jeez… we can out produce entire corporations individually! I can't wait to leave this underground train station after learning more about what I can actually do. In 10-15 years time, we can become our own world power and provide all the basic necessities of life to everyone, everywhere. Hopefully, maybe. I don't know... I need to know more about what exactly we can do.*

"That's quite the thought." Cara says.

"Wha.. what? I didn't say anything did I?"

"Besides being able to teleport, move objects with our minds, or the rare ability of stopping time. We also happen to be telepaths."

Mikes jaw drops, and locks up in place; frozen in fear from the violation of his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Cara is followed in silence, not even a thought from Mike since that realization. She becomes concerned with the breach of social etiquette.

"I'm sorry." Cara apologizes in hopes of getting at least a response. Focused with the intent to gain any information at all, the desire to foster any form of response. From her perspective, Mikes mind doesn't really even hear what's going on, he has instead chosen to be at peace and let all of these problems solve themselves within the inner workings of his mind. Knowing at any time, anyone from anywhere could hear what he's thinking. Without any scope to form even a basis for the parameters of this newfound power, his instinct kicks in; preventing even the faintest unseen possibility from harming him. *That's got to be it, he's shut down. He's scared.*

"Sorry doesn't even cut it, though I suppose I should be an open book." Mike responds after they've reached the training area. "Look, I've put some thought into what can actually be done with these powers and yeah… you guys are wasting their entire potential. Those thoughts I had earlier are barely the tip of the iceberg."

"You haven't put any thought into anything, I've made sure of that." Cara responds. *There's no way he could have…* she thinks to herself.

"You do know, that now I know we can filter the thoughts of others, it's easy to pick and choose what to hear and what not to hear."

"Are you listening to what I have to say?" Cara asks trying to shift the blame over to Mike. Guilt; her only real weapon. She used to have more, an entire arsenal against everyone else. "You're a hypocrite, listening to everyone else's thoughts. How dare you."

"It's not that I'm not listening, it's impossible not to hear. You hear the thoughts of everyone else automatically as well." Mike says before continuing, "You want to know how I continued thinking about all of this stuff without having a single thought?"

*So he has been….* Cara thinks before blurting out, "how?"

"Yes, that should be obvious. It's simple really, I chose which words to hear and combined them in a way to process a solution. Every word followed a pattern that I could understand, without my mind being read. It appears you can't read the mind of the person whose mind I am reading."

"That's insane… There's no way you could do something like that," Cara says.

"Perhaps, it's not that much of a jump though. You should try it sometime, you'll actually have some privacy for once."

"Why are you acting like you've lived like this for longer than me? I'm the one willing to teach you. You should be grateful for our concern." Cara snaps.

"No offence, but these powers are only really limited by the capacity of our forethought. There's so much more you can do with them than just using them at face value. Teleportation? Why only teleport yourself? Mind reading? Well, I'm sure I've already covered that one. Telepathy? I mean, yeah moving objects is cool and all, but why stop there? Move objects that move other objects and you've got yourself a chain reaction that has nearly limitless potential. I know there are more powers that are still hidden, they've only yet to be discovered."

Speechless. Cara can't even begin to fathom a response. Her jaw drops much like Mikes did when she violated the sanctity of his mind, only this time she's the one frozen in place. It's not fear. Nor is it admiration. She needs something from him, but doesn't know what. She's lost. She's powerless, something she's never felt before. Unsure of how to proceed, Cara just waits for Mike to say something else.

Mike closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry to tell you all of this stuff, I'm sure it's the opposite of how you expected our relationship to be. I know you had planned to teach me and instead, I've destroyed the core of your understanding of these powers we possess. I am, and always will be curious as to how we've obtained them, though from what I've gathered from those here, nobody actually knows. Jedikiah might, perhaps I should talk to him."

"Jedikiah will kill you. He's far more powerful than you can imagine."

"Hah, he's just a man who knows about us. Sure, if I rush blindly I'd be crushed by the counter measures he can put in place." Mike begins to imagine a scenario in which he has the upperhand. A method to prevent Jedikiah from ever harming him, even if he was powerless in his presence. The image of an object with a direct collision course for the building their in is enough to show the thought. If Mike is detained in anyway, the object falls killing everyone. While that method doesn't resonate with his ideals, it's enough to show how powerless Jedikiah really is.

"You're just a terrorist. That would never work anyway. We can't kill anyone."

"You think I mean to kill them? No, it wouldn't be me killing them. Just a defensive measure if they plan to kill me. After all, their death is due to the absence of my power. It's not like I'd be intending to kill them."

Her face glows red in her haste, her anger boils. She teleports as fast as she can to go pick up a pole weapon. The one she beat John with. Holding the pole in her hand, all of her confidence comes back. *I am the strongest.* Once she gets back, all she can see is a coy smile on Mikes face. One word comes from his mouth, "Cute." That word makes her feel useless. She wasn't mere child's play, she was a warrior. One who could even fight against the ruthless Julian Masters. This was just some guy named Mike. A noname person who just learned about homo superiors. Hell, he doesn't even know what that even means yet. Her rage reaches the tipping point; she attacks knowing she's the best hand to hand combat homo superior yet. She knows there's no way this nobody could best her in a straight on fight. Her thoughts keep looping, these feelings grant her more power than she ever had. Rushing him, closing the distance far faster than she ever thought possible, she could feel his defeat in her grasp.

"Hah," Mike laughs, with a wave of his hand he imagines the pole inside Caras leg. A high pitched scream comes just before she falls over. In her sprint the straightened leg attempts to move against the metal pole, each muscle tendon scraping against it while trying to tighten due to the momentum of her movement. Forced to stay in the same position, the tissue proves unable to fight the metal at all. Too resistant, the foreign object then pushes the flesh away from the bone. The unbending leg causes her to fall over, Mike just side steps out of the way. "I don't need to best you in combat, our powers are a game of wits."


End file.
